I only got to hear about this from my brother Paul. He knew Henlow was one of the clubs we played whilst on tour last month.

It grieves me to report their premises were burgled last Thursday and they lost a new scarifier and two mowers. I believe the value was up in the £5000 range. Our tourists and indeed our club as a whole offer our sympathies to Henlow Bowling Club and hope they get their equipment back undamaged and that the culprits get what they deserve. They won’t of course, even if caught the law does not allow appropriate penalties.

Don’t these people know how much effort goes into raising the funds for such equipment and all by volunteers? The answer of course is in the negative, not that they would care if they did know.

It’s sickening to see the lengths some clubs have to go to keep their premises free from vandalism and theft. Local communities should take a pride in all bowling clubs. We all try to be a part of our communities and provide valuable contributions to healthier lifestyles, particularly for those of retirement age. Our local communities should be doing their bit to protect us from both vandalism and theft.

Just in case we have any readers with a tendency to regard Bowling Clubs as easy targets, I’ll make it quite clear here and now; we employ an outside contractor to care for our green and consequently don’t have any such equipment stored here. In fact we keep nothing of value here, indeed over winter there are not even any of our players’ bowls or shoes on the premises.